11.26.2013

Until December 8, a fair of Nameko Saibai Kit is held at a underground shopping area of Tokyo Station. There was a battlefield of Nameko fans! :D

Every Nameko goods were sold, and they were bought in an instant by fans. Particularly, the stuffed toys of 1,260 yen were very popular, and staff were very busy to supplement them.

A commemorative stamp of Nameko fair.

A popularity vote of Nameko. In released Nameko Saibai Kit apps, Nameko more than 300 kinds was born until now. Who will a popular Nameko be in them most? According to Nameko official site, 5,000 votes or more gathered only at the first day.

In Nameko Fair, a part of the episode was shown. It's very cuuuute! Nameko do not speak all lines, but express feelings only by a motion. This is an original animation. Furthermore, the goods of Nameko anime have been already made.

Cardboard Nameko is evangelist of Nameko world. He continues transmit charm of Nameko day after day (actually, he is the staff of Beeworks, the developer of the Nameko Saibai Kit series).

The goods which I bought. A stuffed toy and a picture book. The girl who became 3 years old of my relative was Nameko freak and she mastered how to use Android phone in Nameko! I intend to present these to her.

Nameko Saibai Kit series is smartphone game apps most popular in Japan. They break through 40 million downloading and are more popular now in Taiwan than Japan. In addition, the number of the downloading increases in Korea and China. They held a meeting event of Nameko in Takao, Taiwan on November 23 and 24.

11.25.2013

Today, Users of LINE broke through 300 million at last. They start service in June, 2011 and get many users now in East Asia, Spanish zone, France, Germany, Italy, India and Turkey.

Interestingly, 80% of LINE users are not Japanese. Usually, Messaging apps has a hard time with the acquisition of users except the own country. However, LINE got foreign users more than Japanese users in a short term. Particularly, there are many LINE users in Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Spain and India. They got 10 million users in India in only three months.

According to this, Messages and the stickers transmitted in 1 day are about 7,200 million times, Stickers was used about 216 billion times, and the total of the call time is about 568 years!

What is a foundation of LINE's popularity? Now, there are a lot of messaging apps all over the world, but what is the difference between them and LINE? According to them, most popular stickers are these.

Well, all of them are LINE characters! They pull profit of LNE. Sales of stickers, sales of real goods, and character license.

Cute banners! App Bank Store is the iOS goods shop where is popular in Japan recently. They sell the fancy goods of popular smartphone games.

By the event, Rovio art director Toni Kysenius taught how to draw Angry Birds. It was held four times per day and full in all times.

Surprisingly kids and their parents occupied most of seats. Besides, they knew the names of characters properly. To be frank, I was surprised at this. Unfortunately Angry Birds is not very well known and not the popularity in Japan. The ranking order are low, and there are few kinds of goods sold in stores. However, children knew Angry Birds. Where would they know Angry Birds? It is necessary to research in this more.

The left person is the staff of App Bank Store and Right Red Bird head is Rovio Japan Boss Antti Sonninen :) He was in charge of an interpreter.

The explanation of Toni Kysenius was very plain and Children seemed to enjoy it.

The reproduction poster of the watercolor of Toni Kysenius was presented to participants of the event.

I think that this event was timely. Because of a period of the cross-promotion with Puzzle and Dragons, furthermore, it was just after the illustration contest with them. This would become the good memory for kids above all.

By the way, Soon after cross promotion with Puzzle and Dragons started, the ranking in Japan of Angry Birds Free rose from lower than 400th place to the 20th place. This is Puzzle and Dragons effect.

One year passed after LINE released their virtual world apps "LINE Play" and it broke through 13 million users. In addition, most popular virtual world in Japan Ameba Pigg has about 15 million users. Well, LINE Play caught Ameba Pigg at last.

According to the press release of LINE, 6,800,000 users are foreigners. This is very rare by the Japanese service, because Japanese fail in overseas advances well.

Why did LINE Play succeed? It may be supported by popularity of LINE of the messaging apps. However, LINE Play has a lot of charm as the virtual world. At first, a design is cute. Furthermore, users can create a virtual life unlike the real life through their avatars. in particular, The diary function of LINE Play was popular and was used 110 million times until now. Youths may get tired of real name, real friends and real life such as Facebook.

Furthermore, business tie-up with companies, brands and characters are brisk, too. Tie-up room and the avatar are important income sources of LINE Play like virtual currency sale. LINE Play users visited the tie-up rooms more than 500 million times until now. This is big advertisement effect!

If they get another 2 million users, they line up in Ameba Pigg. Possibly it during this year.

11.21.2013

I wrote it several times about Japanese sea fight simulation web game "Kan Colle". It has already broken through 1 million users with popularity now. And the active users rate does not fall, the administration team is very busy with the server reinforcement.

By the way, a motif of Kan Colle is battleships of the Japanese empire navy. Many battleships are personified by cute girls and appear, and It's a popular source:) Because they were too cute, there are the Kan Colle goods of every kind in Japan now. This business model is the just same as Angry Birds and Nameko Saibai Kit.

However, it have a problem. Japan was a major country of the axis Powers and made colonial rule in Asian countries. About Kan Colle, how will Allies and the Asian countries think?

About this, opinion came up at once from Korea. Mr.Kim writes it in Korean site hankooki,

"Why will we often witness such a thing in Japanese society? Because Japanese society becomes turning to the right wing. Long-term economy slump, an aging society, disappointment for the politics would act. It is an big earthquake of March 11, 2011 to have caused such society uneasiness. Japan after 3.11 becomes strong in groupism and a sense of victimization that everybody must unite firmly before the crisis."

How do you think? Do you think popularity of Kan Colle connected Japan's right-wing? Part of indication of Mr.Kim is right. Surely, people of the right wing increase in current Japan. They expect the rearmament of Japan and insist on the rejection of the foreigner(Yes, they are fuckin' stupid). However, is it only Japan? I saw some news similar to this in an overseas news site. Similar stupid seems to increase in North America and Europe. When the world is depressed, the stupid people become the right-wing. This is similar just before World War II. Therefore I can understand that Mr.Kim feels uneasy about it.

However, Why is only Japan in this way?

I think that players of Kan Colle enjoy it regardless of war and thought. They only love a game system and characters purely. The people who were interested for a battleships because of Kan Colle increased, and books and models about battleships sell well, too. However, the people purchasing them come from a pure desire to learn.

By the way, the Kan Colle popularity seems to be handed down to Korea, and earnest Korean gamers made Kan Colle Korean BBS. Though Kan Colle does only Japanese support, they play eagerly and discuss the capture method.

How about another country invaded by Japan? Taiwan was the colony where the rule by Japan was pushed forward most.